Gulliver goes to Blefuscu to escape the Lilliputian emperor's growing displeasure, later to find out that he has been named a traitor to Lilliput for several reasons and that Lilliputian leadership agreed to starve him as punishment. While in Blefuscu, Gulliver is treated well by its monarch. When the emperor of Lilliput demands that the emperor of Blefuscu send Gulliver home, the Blefuscudin emperor secretly offers Gulliver his protection and refuses to send him back to Lilliput as prisoner. When Gulliver finds a boat, the emperor of Blefuscu provides him with five hundred workmen to help him make sails while he repairs it, and he is given the tallow of three hundred cows for greasing the boat as well as the assistance of the king's ship carpenters. When Gulliver is finally ready to leave, the king presents him with a number of gifts. Gulliver doesn't do much in Blefuscu other than get ready to go home.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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